A Day in the Life...

This is a guest post written by Kristin, who is a stay at home mom to an adorable 10 month old boy, and wife to a wonderful man. Thank you for your post Kristin!!

My whole life I have wanted to have a family of my own, and the big dream was to be a stay-at-home mom. Well all my dreams came true, but let me tell you it is WAY HARDER THAN I EVER IMAGINED. Now I am writing this blog while sipping on a glass of wine, munching on some chocolate and watching Ryan Gosling in all his glory, sounds pretty sweet right? Well yeah, except that this was my day...
4am- Baby wakes up crying and sitting (a newly learned habit) in his crib. Go in and rock him to sleep. So, say 4:30 back to bed.

7am- Baby has stopped playing quietly in crib and is now demanding to be picked up. Now I fully celebrate and appreciate the fact that my baby has been playing in his crib and allowing me to sleep (on and off, since 6:30). So don’t think I am ungrateful, I am simply saying this is the start of my day.

8:30am- Breakfast is over and now the entertainment section of our day begins...wait, what’s that smell? Oh Jeez...is that from him? Open diaper, start praying.

10am- Playing done. Bottle and nap time- yeah!!!

10:30am- NO. Conor has decided napping is so 10 minutes ago, and after going in and out for a half hour I gave up. BUT, I must at least vacuum because he is crawling now, and I have noticed that dusty bunnies like to attach to his legs and trail behind him like a banner.

10:45am- I was able to manage a half of the house while holding him, but his 21lbs is too much for me so into the bouncer my very-unhappy-to-be-put-down baby goes. I finish vacuuming, but can’t seem to see my child anywhere.

10:46am- HE IS OUT HOORAY! I pick him up and carry him to his crib. This is great! I desperately need to get some house cleaning done, but first maybe some lunch?

11:20am- Just kidding. Back to play time.

Noon- Lunch time for the boy. Only its a non-stop battle...I can’t seem to give him enough, surely he can’t consume THAT much food right? Should I be worried that his stomach will explode? Google that, while giving him more cereal puffs.

12:30pm- No one has exploded yet, so back to playtime.

12:45pm- Scratch that child does not want to play he wants to flip or be thrown in the air...repeatedly. Is he going to puke?

2:00pm- What is that RASH!?!?! Why is my doctors answering machine coming on? Wait, why did it just hang up on me? Aren’t you suppose to send me to your call back line for the nurse? OH NO is that another one? IS THIS AN ALLERGIC REACTION!?!?!

2:10pm- Whew, nope a bug bite. The flare up is gone. 2:30pm- Bottle time and afternoon NAP!

2:45pm- Just kidding. No Sleep for Brooklyn is apparently very appropriate for this house.

2:46pm- Let’s try the swing....he always falls asleep in the swing. 3:00pm- Nope...not today. Back to playtime on the floor.

3:10pm- OR, holding him while he tries to grab every single thing he is NOT supposed to touch.

3:30pm- Ok, if we are not napping we are so going to bed early tonight. This is the new plan. Why is he crying now? OH THAT SMELL- maybe black beans are not the best food choice.

4:30pm- Dinner time. Let’s try a couple favorites so that we can make this night as easy as possible.

4:32pm- OR NOT...apparently he hates them today. Desperately search for something healthy and quick to feed screaming/crying baby.

4:33pm- OR NOT...banana and toast it is! 5:00pm- BATH TIME! What is that...not again!

5:30pm- Bath time is the best...for reals. Baby is ridiculously cute, he is having a blast, and all I have to do is make sure he does not drown- so far this has been easy to do knock on wood.

6:30pm- He is out sweet, sweet relief. Let’s make some dinner and relax...

6:45pm- JUST KIDDING. Rock baby and sing softly back to sleep.

7:00pm-Asleep. HO-ORAY.

Now, for all you moms who are like, that’s not so tough please note that I have not included: the fall off the bed incident, the random neighborhood cat that snuck into my house that my dog FREAKED OUT at and barked at during the entire bedtime dance, the dust storm that came through while my diapers were outside line drying and the friends that stopped by to do a quick craft project (that was actually a highlight).

Being a stay at home mom is one of the hardest, most challenging things I have ever done in my whole life...BUT I would not trade it for anything. I get to see my child’s face light up when he discovers waving, I get to see him go through a bin of books and help foster a love of reading in him, I get all his open mouthed kisses and sticky finger hugs, I get to hear him learn the difference between da-da and daddy, and see his delight in playing tug-of-war with our dog.

There are so many amazing and minute benefits of being a stay-at-home mom, that even on your worst days (and really today was rather calm) you creep in and look at your child sleeping in their crib and you know... this is my heart, and you can’t wait to see what the next day brings.